Gilmer Animal Shelter goes all out in preparations of the holidays

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Animal

GILMER COUNTY, Ga. – Gilmer County’s Animal Shelter (GCAS) and its Director, Daniel Laukka, have plenty to be thankful for this weekend after the Thanksgiving holiday. Between donations allowing for the planning of the coming expansion and upgrades to the animal shelter and donations in early November during their successful Pet Palooza event, they have seen great support from the Gilmer community.

AnimalBut these workers and their director didn’t just accept gifts and rest on their laurels. Instead of focusing only on what they were thankful for, they have also moved into the giving side of the holiday. GCAS didn’t just offer their current residents with the daily kibble. Instead, a Thanksgiving meal was prepared to specially commemorate the holiday for a few animals who haven’t yet met the family they will be celebrating holidays with.

Making special note that no harmful ingredients were used, the Shelter prepared and served the meals and then posted photos of the dogs excitedly consuming them.

GCAS stated, “We are so very thankful for all of our volunteers and supporters, we wouldn’t be where we are without you! GCAS is so very blessed to have such an awesome support system.”

Yet, it doesn’t stop there. The shelter is also unveiled its special “Nightmare Before Christmas” themed tree for the Gilmer County Library’s Festival of Trees and the Holiday Open House event. Supporting their own animals, other county endeavors, and still maintaining their usual services for community through daily work and offering extra advice for pet owners who already have their companions like winter and cold weather preparations and tips.

These efforts also have no indication of stopping as plans continue for the shelter moving into 2022 and continue with partnerships in other states alongside the plans for expanded space in Gilmer County.

But getting there still has needs. While volunteers and staff continue to put in efforts to better the facility and provide special treats like Thanskgiving dinner for the animals, they still have their own Christmas Wish List moving into December to provide better care now as they wait for those upgrades to come in the latter half of 2022. Citizens can pour their Christmas support into the shelter through their wish list or through volunteer services both this Christmas season and in the coming year.

Homeward Bound Pet of the Week: Lilia

Community

Meet Lilia, an 8-month-old beauty who loves everyone she meets; dogs; kids; and their parents!    You will want to bury your fingers into her soft, thick hair as she leans into you.  Lilia has a lot of energy and will require an active family to take her for walks and playtime.  A fenced yard is preferable but not required.

 

For more information about the Homeward Bound Pet Rescue pets, check out our website and apply online:  www.hbpr.org.  We are always looking for volunteers to foster and help with socializing our cats and dogs.  We are located between Ellijay and Blue Ridge, GA.

 

Gilmer Animal Shelter expansion approved

Community, News
expansion, Animal Shelter

ELLIJAY, Ga. – “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” A sign say in front of the Gilmer County Courthouse’s Jury Assembly Room, brought by one of the supporters of the county’s Animal Shelter and an expansion plan alongside two major donations for the facility.

expansion

Brought by a citizen speaking in support of the shelter’s expansion, a sign sits in front of the BOC meeting on September 12, 2021.

The plan actually includes both expansion and retrofitting of the facility. With encouragement from groups like FOGAS (Friends of Gilmer Animal Shelter), Volunteers Helping the Gilmer County Animal Shelter, Paws Be Good, Homeward Bound, Furry Paws, and many others according to Jack Peyton of FOGAS, who spoke first in the Commissioners meeting on September 9, 2021.

The expansion and donations have been discussed before with questions arising over how the county will support the annual increase in budget for maintaining a larger facility.

Many of those who spoke at the meeting, including Animal Shelter Director Daniel Laukka, stated that the need for a larger facility is already here and more growth is coming. Laukka and others spoke about how animals have become so increased in number that they are being housed in areas like offices simply because their is not enough room elsewhere. With cages in his own office for cats, Laukka spoke of the benefits that the expansion and retrofit will provide in caring for the animals, and how some money could be saved in the annual costs.

Minor items like having to take animals to the vets office for spay/neuter appointments will be neutralized as the expansion has a small area for vets to come and perform the procedures in the animal shelter with equipment in the shelter.

Laukka said he already has 2 vets committed to coming to the shelter to do this. With volunteers continuing to help when possible, speakers in the meeting repeated the need that they have seen as they have helped and visited the shelter. He also noted that a local commercial laundry service has offered to service new laundry equipment designated in the retrofit for free. Also helping with some additional maintenance costs.

Daniel Laukka

Animal Shelter Director Daniel Laukka, left, sits in the Gilmer BOC meeting waiting to speak about the donations and plans to expand.

Additional discussion moved from what is needed to what has already been accomplished. Dr. William Mitchell, a veterinarian, walked to the podium and said, “I am here to speak in support of Daniel.”

Though the topic at hand was about plans to expand the animal shelter, many of the speakers spoke specifically to what Director Daniel Laukka has accomplished and the leadership he has provided. Dr. Mitchell went on to say he has worked with Animal Control facilities for several decades, “I have never seen a more dedicated and hard working individual than Daniel.”

Laukka himself said he could never do what he does without his staff and supporting groups. It is a collective of efforts from the community that support the shelter.

Programs from supporting groups have allowed for help in the community like low cost spays and neuters for those who need it and the capturing of feral cats in order to spay/neuter and then re-release.

All of these culminate in a department that citizens said has every county in North Georgia looking at Gilmer and how they handle this. One speaker went so far as to call it a “mecca” of the animal shelters in the area.

expansion

A photo of the GIlmer Animal Shelter from the Volunteers Helping the Gilmer Animal Shelter.

Laukka himself noted that in 2013, the shelter averaged around 1800 to 2000 animals a year. Laukka noted that close to 1100 of those animals were euthanized every year. WIth expansion first looked at four years ago, according to Laukka, the county instead went with a van that is used in partnership with other programs in other states in the north.

With this hard work towards becoming a “no kill” status, Laukka said in the meeting, “Ninety-nine percent of the animals that come into the shelter now, leave the shelter alive, adoptable, healthy. I get all the credit for it but I couldn’t do it without all the volunteers and the employees. The employees do way more than anybody could ever know.”

Almost 45 minutes of discussion saw every single person that did stand to speak on the topic discussing their support for accepting the donations and the expansion plans. After that, the commissioners moved to the agenda item on the plans.

expansion

As the unanimous vote made approval of the plans for expansion, citizens rose to their feet in applause to show their own approval of the motion.

A very emotional night saw several speakers fighting back tears, and so followed Chairman Paris as he said, “I understand. I can’t say a lot, but I’m going to make a motion to accept the money and build a shelter.”

Post Commissioner Karleen Ferguson later seconded the motion after clarifying and Paris’ amending his motion that the county fund an expansion with costs not to exceed the fund for the building from the donations. He explained the fund contains a little over $1.5 million. As such, the fund is specifically designated for the shelter. Paris said there is nothing else it can be used for.

According to a statement by FOGAS, “The input, planning, architectural work, and engineering have been completed for this expansion project.” Now, the county will take on the plans with the intent to bid and begin construction. The engineer was present at the meeting and relayed that with the work that’s been done, the county could be bidding the project by the end of the year with construction to begin in 2022.

Speaking on the expansion, Director Laukka said, “I could probably stand up here and talk for hours about what we’ve accomplished over the last few years but I want to accomplish more over the next few years as well. It’s definitely something we have to do together.”

Homeward Bound Pet Of The Week: Cheeky and Carlie.

Fast & Furriest

Meet Mom, Cheeky, the beautiful 7-year-old fawn-colored chi who weighs 8 lbs, and her daughter, Carlie, a 3-year-old rat/chi who weighs 12lbs.

These girls were an owner surrender at animal control due to the owner no longer able to care for them.  They are sweet little girls who love human attention, seem to be house trained, and enjoy walking on a leash.  

For more information about Homeward Bound Pet Rescue, check out our website and apply online:  www.hbpr.org.  We are always looking for volunteers to foster and help with socializing our cats and dogs.  We are located between Ellijay and Blue Ridge, GA.

 

Public Safety opens shelter amid storm

News

ELLIJAY, Ga. – Ravaged by a storm across North Georgia, counties across the region are responding tonight to provide for citizens as best as possible.

The Gilmer County Public Safety Department has enacted plans late this evening due to the storm.

A shelter has been opened for anyone displaced from their home, or otherwise needing a place to stay. The shelter is located at the Civic Center, 1561 S Main St.

Much of Gilmer County suffered high winds and heavy rainfall throughout the night. Outages for Amicalola alone reached a total outages number between 11,000 and 12,000. The vast majority of those were in Gilmer County, reading 7,210 just before 3:00 a.m. according to their site.

Families sheltered in bathrooms and safe zones just after 1:00 a.m. as emergency warnings and tv weather reports urged immediate action with a tornado warning.

The National Weather Service also stated, “At 107 AM EDT, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located over Ranger, or 13 miles east of Calhoun, moving east
at 60 mph.”

While downed trees, power lines, and other wind damage have already been reported from the storm, no reports on any extreme damage have been seen yet.

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